It is clear that we will need bipartisan support in order to take floor votes on gun safety and marriage equality this week. We will take some time to work on these important issues to advance them in the near future.

The executive committee has been delayed, but we still intend to hold a hearing on marriage equality shortly.

* 12:44 pm - Subscribers knew about this sad development early this morning. From IR…

Condolences to State Senator Suzie Schmidt (R-Lake Villa), as her Springfield staff is reporting that Ms. Schmidt’s mother passed away this morning.

Senator Schmidt will not be in Springfield for today’s or tomorrow’s lame duck session. Her absence could affect the outcome of the same sex marriage bill expected to come before the Senate Thursday or Friday.

Schmidt was a “Yes” vote on gay marriage.

* 12:54 pm - I asked the SDem spokesperson if “near future” meant next week at the earliest. Her e-mailed response…

Correct

The Senate is not scheduled to return until Tuesday at the earliest. That’s the last full day of the lame duck session.

* 12:59 pm - From what I’m hearing, you can forget about both issues for the rest of the lame duck session. What a mess.

State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) is in Israel. State Sen. Suzi Schmidt (R-Lake Villa) is missing because of her mother’s death, and Senate Majority Leader James Clayborne (D-Belleville) had a health issue arise involving a family member, Steans said.

Those absences, coupled with heavy lobbying against the bill from the Archdiocese of Chicago, leave her short of the necessary 30 votes she would need to get her bill out of the Senate before the chamber adjourns for the weekend. […]

Robert Gilligan, director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, said Catholic leaders had discussed the possibility of Cardinal Francis George making direct appeals to legislators with personal phone calls, but Gilligan said it wasn’t clear whether that had happened Thursday. […]

Gun-rights supporters estimated that the legislation banning military-styled guns and the ammunition that feeds them is perhaps three or four votes shy of the necessary 30-vote threshold to pass either one, despite a heavy lobbying push from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn.

But state Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge), chief Senate sponsor of the ammunition bill, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Schoenberg’s absence, as well as the absence of state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago), left him short of the support he needed to pass the ammunition bill on the Senate floor.

Schoenberg was never expected to be in town and Steans knew it. The decision to move forward was ill advised from the get-go if she was counting on that vote.

Having been raised and educated a Catholic, and doing the same with my children, I have drifted from the Church for various reasons. This year I thought I should make an effort to go back. Thanks Cardinal George for giving me permission to sleep in on Sundays this year.

–It is clear that we will need bipartisan support in order to take floor votes on gun safety and marriage equality this week. We will take some time to work on these important issues to advance them in the near future.–

No, that doesn’t work anymore.

Whip your 40-19 majority into line in the next GA on “these important issues” or just admit it’s all about power for power’s sake and not the issues.

You control the appointments, the agenda and the contributions. You can’t blame the GOP on these two issues.

What wordslinger said. Don’t try to play that game. If it is important now, it is important in two weeks. Use your power and get it done early in the session. It would be nice to see them do some real work that first month for a change.

-It is clear that we will need bipartisan support in order to take floor votes on gun safety and marriage equality this week. We will take some time to work on these important issues to advance them in the near future.–

Or, to put it another way: we are not able to overcome the bi-partisan coalition that doesn’t want to see decisions made on these two highly controversial issues in a hasty manner by lame-duck legislators.

Former Downstater should read the law. 25 ILCS 170/) Lobbyist Registration Act at section 3 (a) (7) exempts full time employees of churches from the lobbyist registration requirements. So neither the Cardinal nor any employee of the Catholic Church is required to register under state law.

I assumed Steans and company had some outgoing GOP and conservative Dem members (Maloney, Meeks) lined-up to vote for SSM — otherwise it made no sense to run it during the lame duck session. Suzi Schmidt was it? Don’t see how it gets better on the House side.

And given the fact Biss is still working his pension bill pretty hard, does he want to leave the House early to take Schoenberg’s spot?

Both of these issues have bi-partisan support and bi-partisan opposition. The views might be slowly shifting over time, but are seriously held, and don’t get pressured or traded away easily. At this point, do you want to expend most of your serious ammo on these two, or would you focus on pensions first?

I didn’t have much hope for gun legislation during lame duck anyway. On marriage equality: What G. Harris is doing is the key. If it happens now, he will have done it properly. If it doesn’t happen now, he will have already prepared a strategy for the new GA.

As poor of a job Steans did, Greg Harris did an outstanding job. Steans image is going to take a bit of a beating, and considereing her district and blaming others for not knowing how to count, Steans should re-group and focus on the new GA.

I feel bad for the work Harris did.

To be perfectly clear;

I am commenting on the political manuvering.

Not on agreeing or disagreeing on the bill.

Politically, and procedurely Steans owes harris a big “sorry”. Quite a big mistake, not knowing your “yes”es. Observers are not going to forget this one quickly.

“And from what I hear, Rep. Harris is directly involved in the current decision making on how to proceed in the Senate”

There are lots of people involved in the strategy here but let’s be clear, the egg is on the face of the Senate sponsor here. She should not have called the bill without the bodies in the room. That’s lawmaking 101. This is not the first time Steans has looked a bit on the amature side.

As for the Cardinal — I don’t know what the threshold is for having to register as a lobbyist — but he also doesn’t give up his constitutional rights to weigh-in as a person, simply because he heads a major institution. Other citizens don’t have to register as lobbyists to pick-up the phone and lobby legislators. That being said, I disagree with his position.

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms..disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one.” - Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria, Criminologist in 1764. That was 249 years ago. -Thomas Jefferson

I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government’s right to know what I own. Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection yet decry me having the same a crime. You ma’am have overstepped a line that is not your domain. I am a Marine Corps Veteran of 8 years, and I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one.

I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America.

I am the man who fought for my country. I am the man who learned. I am an American. You will not tell me that I must register my semi-automatic AR-15 because of the actions of some evil man.

I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established by the media and your misinformation campaign against the American public.

We, the people, deserve better than you.

Respectfully Submitted,
Joshua Boston Cpl,
United States Marine Corps
2004-2012
The same stand true for Illinois!

Probably not. They still haven’t figured a constitutional way to rob the current employees and retirees of their pensions so they can declare it “fixed” today.

There are only two proposals on the table that almost everyone agrees would pass constitutional” muster:

1) Cost-shifting the “normal” pension cost for TRS and the community college portion of SURS. But with a gradual phase-in, this won’t amount to a huge pile of cash freed up immediately. Even after full phase-in after a number of years, it would only approach about $1.5B … which would be all ate up by the increasing “ramp” payments. And I’m not sure the State won’t have to equalize the school formula to the CPS level, which will basically negate the savings.

2) Once it is freed up in the near future, dedicating the money currently being used to pay pension bond debt to be direct payments to the 5 pension funds. This approach will actually pay down the shortfall if followed for enough years, say 25 or 30, AND the State continues to make both the “normal” payments and the “ramp” payments.

I think the combination of these two is the best shot the State has to honestly fix the pension underfunding … but it doesn’t fit the “greedy state employee / greedy union” storyline.

Jefferson compiled a book. This quote of an Italian essayist - Cesare Beccaria - was among the items in his compilation. He provided no commentary other than “false ideas of utility”, in Italian. Perhaps that is why the monticello.org site files this under “spurious quotations.”

Guns4Ever - The right to peaceably assemble is protected in the Bill of Rights, yet permits may be required and restrictions can be put on the time and place. The point is that the government does have the constitutional authority to regulate the press, assembly, and yes, guns.

The gun bills are just idiodic pandering. They don’t have the votes, and if they get them it will likely cost dems at least the house next eleciion. Regardless of what he really wants, I don’t see Madigan risking giving up control for a bill that will probably get whacked by the Courts. Time for gun control advocates to get quiet for a while. If you want the streets safer in Chicago, elect a competent mayor.

Kids are still more likely to get killed in a bus accident than in a school schooting. Go protest for better safety standards for buses for a while.

Emanual can’t get guns out of criminals hands in his city, so he wants to take guns from law abiding citizens hundreds of miles away. I think the Mayor and the Governor should set an example and pledge to have their security details not carry guns. Good for the Goose!